Nine months in Melbourne. Every award a musical can win. goes to Adelaide to finds out what makes Matilda The Musical so special.
Jack van Beynen
It’s not easy getting a musical across the Tasman. Just ask veteran stage producer Louise Withers, who is bringing the Australian production of Matilda The Musical to Auckland in August.
‘‘Coming to New Zealand is a huge financial cost,’’ she says. ‘‘Sometimes New Zealand misses out on the big shows because it is an expensive exercise to come across the water.’’
But we’re not going to miss Matilda. In July, when the production finishes its Adelaide run, the set will be packed up and loaded onto a ship ready to be reconstructed in the Civic Theatre.
Hotels will be booked, plane tickets for cast and crew purchased, bags packed, loved ones kissed goodbye.
Matilda will be in Auckland from August 18 to October 8. A lot of effort is required for two months of shows, but Withers is convinced it will be worth it.
Matilda is a special musical – so special that when Withers heard it was on in London in 2011, she flew there, knocked on the door of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and begged to produce it if it ever came to Australia.
Five or six other Australian producers were asking the same thing but, two years later when the RSC decided to bring the show to the southern hemisphere for the first time, it was Withers the company chose to partner with.
Matilda was not the first big musical Withers had done – her production of Mamma Mia holds the record for Australia’s longest-running musical – but it was perhaps the most exciting.
The eponymous Matilda is a 5-yearold genius who, ill-treated by her parents, develops a special bond with her kind school teacher.
However, the school’s principal – former hammer-throwing champion Miss Trunchbull – is bent on making all her pupils miserable. Matilda must use her unusual gifts to liberate her fellow pupils from Trunchbull’s ironfisted rule.
Withers describes the production as ‘‘edgy’’. In giving such a major role to child actors – her stars are aged 10 and 11 – it pushes the boundaries of what a musical can do.
Part of the show’s daring is due to the unusual team who put it together. In 2008, the UK’s Royal Shakespeare Company decided to adapt Roald Dahl’s classic 1988 novel for the stage. ‘I loved that gentle superpower that she had, and I really loved the idea of somebody sticking up to an adult bully ...’
Matthew Warchus would direct and respected theatre writer Dennis Kelly would look after the script. But who would write the music?
Warchus turned to Tim Minchin, an Australian musical comedian known for performing with big hair, thick eyeliner and bare feet. He had some experience writing for theatre, but nothing near the scale of Matilda. Minchin was an unconventional choice, but one which has paid off: his score and lyrics have won numerous awards.
‘‘It’s an unusual blend of creative team, because the work is unusual,’’ Withers says.
Withers took a gamble of her own when she brought the production to Australia. What convinced her it was going to come off?
‘‘I know how much Roald Dahl is absolutely adored both in Australia and New Zealand, I think his writing absolutely appeals to kids across the world, but particularly to the New Zealand and Australian humour or psyche,’’ she says.
‘‘The idea of kids rebelling against grown-ups and winning out at the end of the day, and the cheeky kind of humour that goes with that – I just thoroughly believed Australian and New Zealand audiences would love it. That has certainly come to pass in Australia, and we certainly hope it will come to pass in New Zealand.’’
Withers is not exaggerating when she says Australian audiences have loved Matilda. Her production started in Sydney in 2015 and more than two years on is still going strong. It played to sell-out audiences in Melboure for nine months – a feat Withers says only a ‘‘handful’’ of productions have achieved in the last 25 years.
The show has also been a hit with critics. At the 2016 Helpmann Awards – Australia’s top performing arts accolade – it won every category a musical could be nominated for.
‘‘I’m pretty proud to say that it is the most awarded musical in Australian theatrical history,’’ Withers says.
Actor James Millar, who plays head villain Miss Trunchbull in the production, expresses Matilda’s appeal simply: ‘‘It’s easy to love and extremely joyful,’’ he says.
Millar, who has been with the show since its opening night in Sydney, saw Matilda first when he was living in London, well before an Australian version was on the cards. He liked it so much he kept going back.
The RSC has made sure the Australian version is up to the same standard as the London performances Millar enjoyed. The company sent a group of the original creators – choreographers, lighting and sound designers, costume-makers and more –